Mala
09-08-2005, 03:24 PM
Style Like Nobody’s Watching—Olivia Dasso (Ladies Salsa Styling)
The world famous Olivia Dasso puts some style into your salsa basics. Works well as a warm up too.
Olivia Dasso is, of course, amazing. I have never seen her but have lots of video clips of her that I gawk at, spellbound. When I saw a promo of her styling video on her website, I couldn’t resist. Look at her beautiful video clip at http://oliviadasso.com.
Olivia starts with some basic isolations—head and neck, shoulders, ribcage, hips, arms. She gives you some superficial attire tips and then goes on to teach two bonus variations on the basic. These work well as a teaser. Another “gift” she has for buyers of her DVD is the “power walk”, a confident and sexy Latin walk with some variations.
On this DVD, Olivia takes up 8 salsa basics (regular back and forward break, side step, back-back breaks, cumbia step, forward checks, forward-forward breaks, Susie Q and right turn). What she does essentially is to put in some styling on each of these basics. She has one set for beginners, and another for advanced, making 16 styling variations in all. All of these are elegant and great looking.
Her method of teaching is to run through them very much like a class. So, she shows you each step with her back to you, so you can dance along, and facing the side, for better visibility. What’s missing is a good front view but it may have been overkill to put in that as well. She explains each variation very thoroughly indeed. Each time she move son to the next variation, she makes you do the previous one as well until you find yourself doing a whole warm up and learning and practicing with the video.
What’s missing is that she doesn’t show you these variations put to actual use on the dance floor. That could have been useful! Are they for solo dancing and shines, free style, or are they easily built into partner dancing?
The other huge disappointment is that nothing on the DVD is like the promo video clip she has on her site. There are more of those clips on the DVD itself but nothing easily copyable and she absolutely does not teach any of the fancy footwork in those clips. Not fair, Olivia!
She winds up with assorted etiquette and other tips. The quality of the production is pretty good. Nothing fancy but everything is clearly visible and “right-sized”. You can’t navigate to each variation separately with a menu.
Olivia’s DVD costs $29.99, sort of an average price compared with other DVDs. Not available from Amazon but you get it on her website. Mine shipped to India easily enough.
I’d rate it 4 on a 5 point scale. Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The dance DVDs I own at the time of this review:
1. Salsa for Gringos-basics-Stephanie Gumon and ave Paris
2. Salsa for Gringos-Turns and spins I-Stephani Gumon and Dave Paris
3. Red Hot Salsa – Basics – Ron and Bethena Rosario
4. Ladies Styling-Technique-Juliet McMains
5. Ladies Styling-Syncopations and Variations-Juliet McMains
6. Ladies Latin Styling-Core Isolations-Jaana Kunitz
7. Ladies Latin Styling-Salsa-Jaana Kunitz
8. Ladies Latin Styling-Chachacha-Jaana Kunitz
9. Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa (Intermediate)
10. Learn to Dance the Salsa CD 2-A sexy and stylish approach – Tennia
11. Style Like Nobody’s Watching – Olivia Dasso
12. Red Hot Salsa - Mambo Shines. Ron and Bethena Rosario
13. Instant Belly Dancer-Curves-Neon
14. Instant Belly Dancer-Hips Plus-Neon
15. Salsa Cubana—Basics
16. Salsa Cubana-Advanced
17. You can dance the cha cha
18. Kaytee’s Beginners Guide to Salsa
The world famous Olivia Dasso puts some style into your salsa basics. Works well as a warm up too.
Olivia Dasso is, of course, amazing. I have never seen her but have lots of video clips of her that I gawk at, spellbound. When I saw a promo of her styling video on her website, I couldn’t resist. Look at her beautiful video clip at http://oliviadasso.com.
Olivia starts with some basic isolations—head and neck, shoulders, ribcage, hips, arms. She gives you some superficial attire tips and then goes on to teach two bonus variations on the basic. These work well as a teaser. Another “gift” she has for buyers of her DVD is the “power walk”, a confident and sexy Latin walk with some variations.
On this DVD, Olivia takes up 8 salsa basics (regular back and forward break, side step, back-back breaks, cumbia step, forward checks, forward-forward breaks, Susie Q and right turn). What she does essentially is to put in some styling on each of these basics. She has one set for beginners, and another for advanced, making 16 styling variations in all. All of these are elegant and great looking.
Her method of teaching is to run through them very much like a class. So, she shows you each step with her back to you, so you can dance along, and facing the side, for better visibility. What’s missing is a good front view but it may have been overkill to put in that as well. She explains each variation very thoroughly indeed. Each time she move son to the next variation, she makes you do the previous one as well until you find yourself doing a whole warm up and learning and practicing with the video.
What’s missing is that she doesn’t show you these variations put to actual use on the dance floor. That could have been useful! Are they for solo dancing and shines, free style, or are they easily built into partner dancing?
The other huge disappointment is that nothing on the DVD is like the promo video clip she has on her site. There are more of those clips on the DVD itself but nothing easily copyable and she absolutely does not teach any of the fancy footwork in those clips. Not fair, Olivia!
She winds up with assorted etiquette and other tips. The quality of the production is pretty good. Nothing fancy but everything is clearly visible and “right-sized”. You can’t navigate to each variation separately with a menu.
Olivia’s DVD costs $29.99, sort of an average price compared with other DVDs. Not available from Amazon but you get it on her website. Mine shipped to India easily enough.
I’d rate it 4 on a 5 point scale. Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The dance DVDs I own at the time of this review:
1. Salsa for Gringos-basics-Stephanie Gumon and ave Paris
2. Salsa for Gringos-Turns and spins I-Stephani Gumon and Dave Paris
3. Red Hot Salsa – Basics – Ron and Bethena Rosario
4. Ladies Styling-Technique-Juliet McMains
5. Ladies Styling-Syncopations and Variations-Juliet McMains
6. Ladies Latin Styling-Core Isolations-Jaana Kunitz
7. Ladies Latin Styling-Salsa-Jaana Kunitz
8. Ladies Latin Styling-Chachacha-Jaana Kunitz
9. Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa (Intermediate)
10. Learn to Dance the Salsa CD 2-A sexy and stylish approach – Tennia
11. Style Like Nobody’s Watching – Olivia Dasso
12. Red Hot Salsa - Mambo Shines. Ron and Bethena Rosario
13. Instant Belly Dancer-Curves-Neon
14. Instant Belly Dancer-Hips Plus-Neon
15. Salsa Cubana—Basics
16. Salsa Cubana-Advanced
17. You can dance the cha cha
18. Kaytee’s Beginners Guide to Salsa